Soul Ablaze
by Victory3114
Summary: Our life can be found in our souls. Our entire consciousness, our thoughts, our feelings. There is a soul in everyone, be it human or pokemon. And when you fight alongside your partners, your souls will resonate through the link, and burn brighter. They will be set ablaze, and with this power, this bond, this game of death will be cleared. PokeSAO X-over! Still alive! Don't worry!


"Welcome to the world of Pokemon!"

It was the voice of an old man, a sound aged by the inevitable passing of time yet still exhibiting abundant traces of youthful enthusiasm. The words themselves had been spoken over and over again, yet the still held their shine, always arousing excitement and anticipation in those who heard them. The words that signaled the entry into a new dimension.

Slowly, the speaker materialized out of thin air from the dark void around him. A slightly balding man, face bearing the wear from the years past, but split open by a wide smile. His eyes shimmered, as if he was crying, so happy to find another one who was about to be introduced to the best and most popular game ever. In his hand, he carried a book that looked as worn as he did, complete with the dog-ears and torn cover. A gentle green light began to pulse outward in regular intervals from where he stood, as if they were standing on the surface of a pond.

He chuckled with mirth, then flung his arms wide open. Now one could see the strange device that lay upon his right arm: a sort of sleeve made of a strange material that only covered around half of of his forearm, like an extended wristband. White in color, with several markings etched into its surface. A large green egg-shaped jewel was set into the part that extended onto the back of his hand, with a data chip slot inscribed underneath it. A long slit that glowed green ran down the back of it, lined with six circular buttons, three on each side. Two were lit up with a luminescent viridian hue. Other than that, the item was an unblemished silver.

"My friend, once again, welcome to the world of Pokemon Universe!" The man breathlessly, gladly spoke. "I am Professor Oak, and I am a Pokemon researcher."

He had heard these words before, but he listened patiently. The mood and air had a ring of greatness to it, which he found fitting with the event at hand. A step into a new dimension, even if it was one he had already discovered before.

"Now, you might be wondering, what are Pokemon? Pokemon are The creatures that roam this world. They are our friends, our companions, our closest partners. They fight alongside us, and in turn, we fight alongside them. We are bound together, our souls are in sync."

Oak's tone turned somber. "Of course, there are those who treat pokemon as tools, as nothing more than weapons to fight for them, discarded and tossed aside at a whim. I am not one to say anything about this. I will not judge you, for your actions and decisions from here on out are yours to make and the results are yours to reap or endure. Now, on to happier topics, onto Pokemon!"

With a flourish, he transferred the book in his left hand to his right, and twirled his finger for effect and stabbed down onto one of the lighted circles on the device. A circle of light flashed into existence in front of him, a portal of light in the darkness. A moment passed before something small popped out of it, and the rift closed itself up. With a light _thud_, it settled into position right onto the space where the hole had been.

He immediately recognized it from its size, distinctive purple fur, sharp front teeth, and curly tail. A Rattata, one of the more common pokemon, a little underwhelming but somehow also one of the most popular, especially among newer players. He supposed people just liked the rat.

"This is a pokemon. A Rattata. As you can see, I summoned him- yes, he's male- from the «Pokelink» I have here." The professor raised his right arm to display the gauntlet to him and pointed at it. "The «Pokelink» is a unique device that carries your partners and allows you to fight in this world. It is an extremely important item on your journey throughout this world, and here is yours!"

The professor held out his hand at the exact same moment a window appeared in front of the player. It asked, "Which arm would you prefer?" with two hand-sized buttons. Reaching out as he had done once before, he placed his right hand on the option on the right and pressed firmly down.

The window vanished and a light dusty shimmer formed around his arm. He watched as the particles coalesced into a gauntlet, a «Pokelink» of his very own. With a setting effect, it fully became solid and tightened to gently fit the contours of his arm, and suddenly he could feel the extra weight on his limb, though it was not all that heavy. Currently it was the standardized white, but...

With another fancy movement, the old man quickly tapped the button, which was now emblazoned with a large cross. With a small sound, the Rattata closed its eyes and dissolved into white light, which immediately beamed itself back towards the «Pokelink». The laser was absorbed by the button, and the cross disappeared, replaced by the normal green glow.

"Now, it is time you told me about yourself." Oak continued. The player sniggered as the world-famous question, "Are you a boy or a girl?" was asked.

In a tone that left no room for doubt, he proudly stated his membership of the male gender. The professor nodded and stepped back as a 3D model of the generic male avatar appeared along with a keyboard and a mouse. Several options and windows lightly wrapped themselves around the model.

"Please choose your appearance from the options and sliders. Type your name in the box below." Oak scratched his head. "When you are done, please tell me."

Now this was the fun part. Enthusiastically, he set to customizing his character with great relish. The hairstyle, the nose, the eyes, every single little detail. It would be the appearance of his second life, after all.

A handsome face suited for a warrior, japanese in origin. Black hair combed to either side. With a poke of his finger, the «Pokelink» turned midnight black, and he set the glow to a dark blue color.

Finished and satisfied, he turned his attention to the name. Without hesitation, he quickly typed in the name he had used for the beta test. It was accepted with a ding, and he called out, "I'm done."

The model and other customization options disappeared, and Professor Oak stepped back into place. With a shake of his head, he nodded. "When you enter this world, head to your right. You will see my laboratory, and there, you will receive your first Pokemon."

He already knew all this, but nodded in response. Oak smiled, and cried, "Good luck, and I'll see you later! Good luck on your wonderful journey!"

And with a bright flash, everything went dark.

A few moments passed where he felt himself zooming down a dark tunnel. Pure black wind raced by his face, as if he were free-falling. His hair flapped in his face, and he fell, farther, farther into a hole with no end-

And then suddenly he found himself standing upright in the main plaza of Starting City. Next to him, several other players who had just finished their introduction came into existence via blue pillars of light.

He quickly took a glance at the familiar surroundings. The buildings, the layout, and even the people who had already acquired their first partner making their first contact.

The nostalgistic feeling returned, and he stared upwards, shading his eyes with one hand against the sun.

Kirito smiled.

"I'm back."

* * *

Prologue: Grey Radiance

* * *

With a sort of solemn air, he placed his hand down onto the surface of the liquid. It rippled as his hand entered, and he felt his hand impact the hard, warm bottom of the water-filled indent. His link lit up, "wirelessly" syncing with the machine.

The plate glowed and pulsed, colorless circular waves expanding from the center of his palm. The terminal's screen lit up, and a few words scrolled across it.

"Welcome to the world of Pokemon Universe! Here, we will read the color of your 'Animus', or your soul, and determine the best partner suited for you!"

The selection of a player's starter pokemon was based off of the procedure for one of the older pokemon games, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. A selection of questions and placing your hand on a specially made plate designed to read emotions.

Even after a thousand had gone through this procedure on the Beta test, nobody had actually learned any shortcuts or tips on getting the pokemon you wanted. No two sets of questions were the same. There were tons of different "colors" of your soul, and for each color, there were tons of pokemon possible. Everyone had collaborated on the forums and pestered the game masters to reveal the formula, but no information had been gathered.

Eventually, during the beta, it was announced that the grading system was being revamped, as a result of the few hundred people who acquired magikarps no matter what they put in. Kirito had been one of those unlucky people, and he had cheered at the thought. Still, after they gave the magikarpers a second chance, Kirito declined because, by then, he had already acquired a gyarados through hard training.

So the questions would be mostly the same, but the way the system chose based on those questions had been upgraded. There was no data on how to pick a certain pokemon.

Therefore, even though Kirito was a beta tester, he was still subject to the randomness of the Animus test that would select his starting pokemon. He swallowed, feeling his throat becoming dry. He would be awarded his partner in this world in just a little bit.

The screen blinked, then faded into a plain grey screen. Ripples began to run across the screen just like the ones in the basin below him. Words appeared, gently moving with the back and forth motion of the waves.

"_You're at a movie theatre. What are you there to see?"_

Three options appeared underneath it. An action movie, a drama movie, or a romantic movie.

Kirito rolled his eyes and slowly answered, clearly, "Action movie." The system registered his voice, recognized the differences in pitch between each letter, and displayed his answer on the screen.

"Action Movie. Is this correct?"

"Yes."

With a blip, the answer was saved and the next one was brought up.

"_Have you ever made a pitfall trap?"_

Kirito snorted a little, responding immediately with a "Yes."

Although he really hadn't, he had always dreamed of making one, someday. It actually didn't really matter, as the machine didn't know that; it simply asked for confirmation, then stored away his answer to be crunched along with any other of his responses.

The test went on for several minutes, Kirito considering each answer carefully and answering as he saw fit. Honestly, though he knew he had a lot of information from the beta, he was almost completely lost right now in this test..

As he answered the questions, the color of the waves on both the screen and in the basin changed. At first, they drifted towards an orange color, then as the answers rolled in, began to fade to a darker shade, before shifting over to a lighter version of blue, then returning to a greyish tone.

"_Do you like pranks?"_

"_You receive a gift! But you don't know what's in it. You're curious, so what do you do?"_

"_It's a weekend, but no one will play with you... What do you do?"_

Another question appeared: _"There is an alien invasion! What will you do?" _With the three options: Fight, run, and ignore it.

_...huh? This is a odd question... Of course I'll fight._

"I'll fight."

There was a bleep, then Kirito blinked in surprise as a secondary question appeared without any confirmation option. _"You valiantly fight the aliens... But, you are defeated... An alien says to you... "YOU HAVE IMPRESSED US. IT WAS A PLEASURE TO SEE. JOIN US, AND TOGETHER WE SHALL RULE THE WORLD." What will you do?"_

Answers: Rule with the Aliens or Refuse.

Stunned for a moment by the question, he quickly gathered his thoughts. Ever the valiant hero, Kirito confidently replied, "I'll refuse."

The terminal asked for confirmation, then the screen faded to darkness. The pulses in the basin stilled as well. There were a few whirrs as the machine looked through all the answers and matched him to his pokemon.

Kirito impatiently waited, mouth tightening and tapping his foot in annoyance.

The screen flickered, then lightened a little bit. The ripples began again, both in the basin where his hand was still submerged and on-screen, but even after a few seconds passed, they didn't change color from the firm grey that filtered through the water.

"_The color of your Animus is grey!"_

The words scrolled on-screen. Kirito read them with mild interest, slightly intrigued. A small explanation appeared underneath the declaration.

"You are innately kind, yet most of the time you are quite reserved. Serious when the time calls for it, but also mischievous if you feel like it. You are brave, standing up for those who cannot, but sometimes morally conflicted."

Kirito blinked, surprised. At first, he dismissed it as just the random claptrap fortune-telling machines usually generated, but once he thought about it, it was actually all pretty true. He had never really known that much about himself before, yet the test had read him with perfect results. The accuracy of this machine was uncanny.

"And so, matching your grey Animus, your partner has been chosen."

A small jet of light arced from the machine and struck the closest button on Kirito's Pokelink. The button glowed brightly for a moment as it absorbed the ray, then dimmed to a dull blue. Kirito tentatively removed his hand from the basin and shook it, scattering miniscule droplets everywhere.

"Good luck, young trainer!"

The terminal shut down and returned to the original colorless waves, awaiting another new player to come and be tested. Moving away from the machine, Kirito was slightly bewildered that they didn't tell you which pokemon you received. At least, during the beta, they had the grace of notifying you after your test. Perhaps they wanted it to be more of a surprise.

He headed down the lab, where people were taking tests on either side. He watched as he passed by; some were staring thoughtfully at the screen, while others were just quickly belting out random answers, perhaps a little over-eager to get their first pokemon. Kirito hurried over to the door, and as he expected, he was suddenly halted by an invisible wall blocking it.

"Wait, sir!"

He turned around to watch one of Professor Oak's Assistants run over, reaching inside his coat for a small case. He doubled over, panting, one hand on his knee, and held out the box. It was a plain silver, gleaming with a metallic luster under the artificial lighting.

"The professor asked me to give you one of these... they're weapons you can equip onto your Pokelink, so you can defend yourself as well need be should the circumstances ask for it. Here, take one. There are five types: Sword, Lance, Axe, Claw, Blaster, and Cannon. Each have their niches."

He opened the case, and there sat six weapon chips lined up in a row neatly. Each one was rectangular, with a line of bronze conductors at the bottom to show which way to insert into the link. Without hesitation, Kirito took the sword chip, the one bearing a sword image. He had always been fascinated with swords.

"I'll take this one."

"Are you sure?" The customary "make sure" check was performed.

"Yes." Kirito firmly announced.

The assistant nodded. "The front of your link, underneath the soul jewel that powers the device, contains the data port for this chip. Slot it i. To register the weapon into your link and set a gesture to call it out in your options menu."

Kirito nodded.

"Good luck." He withdrew and hurried off to the other end of the lab to await the next player.

Kirito was temporarily blinded by the light as he stepped outside, the early afternoon sun still high in the air. Suddenly, he had an urge to to go somewhere more private, and he moved aside, proceeding to duck into a nearby alleyway. Looking over his shoulder for a moment to make sure nobody was following him, he traced his finger down the blue strip on the back of his Pokelink.

With a cybernetic "dingaling~" sound, a holographic interface opened up, wrapped around his arm. A series of options neatly circling around his arm and link like an oversized bracelet. Drawing his finger down the menu similar to how people did on touchscreens thirty years ago, the roll of options rotated until Kirito quickly tapped "maps".

A blue-tinged window appeared in front of him, showing the contours and main districts of Starting City. He spared a glance at it to refresh his memory, then ran along the winding back alleys of the city towards a small hidden corner where he used to rest back in the beta.

Even as he passed several openings to the main streets, he noticed the number of people wandering around aimlessly. He supposed they were all newer players, who didn't know how to play this game effectively yet. Although the game was highly advanced, the tutorial was almost exactly the same as the tutorials in many other MMORPGs: give you your starting equipment and throw you out into the wild.

Kirito swerved into a small square of empty space behind the «Pokemon Center» that could only be accessed through a long winding passageway that opened up pretty far away. Nonchalantly, without even looking at the floor, he scooped up the potion that he knew would be lying abandoned against the wall. With a small shattering sound, it dissolved into light particles and was absorbed into his «Pokelink» for storage and future use.

He checked the long alley for privacy, then turned his stare to the night-black «Pokelink» sitting on his arm. More specifically, the glowing blue button on his pokelink that stored the soul, body and data of his new partner.

_What if it's another magikarp? Eeeehhh... I don't think I could handle that again... well, now or never._

Steeling himself, he tensed, then quickly poked the button with his left index finger, activating it. It blinked out, and the summoning circle opened up on the ground in front of him. He closed his eyes as he saw a flicker a movement.

He heard the portal close. Then he heard nothing.

_Um...?_

Tentatively, he opened his eyes- and looked a face.

A human face.

"AAAHHHH!-"

Catching himself, he fell silent and nailed himself against the wall behind him, trying to back away and get a clearer picture of this person.

A girl, long, raven hair. Petite face. Large black eyes that stared innocently into his soul.

_Wait..._ _Did I get a «DITTO»!?_

The transform pokemon, who could mutate its cells and assume the form of another at will. Normally a pink blob, characteristically mischievous and deceiving. Transforming based on memory may get details wrong. It was certainly likely, a ditto transforming into a human as a joke.

But something felt off about this one... then Kirito realized that it couldn't be a Ditto, because ditto were bound to get details wrong if they transformed from memory, but this person in front of him didn't display the weird characteristics of transformation gone wrong, like their signature dot-dot-line face. It didn't appear to be using him as a base, either...

Kirito felt the touch of its mind, the «Soul Link» that Kayaba Akihiko was so famous for engineering: The bond a trainer and his pokemon shared through the power of the Pokelink. The foreign presence withdrew for a moment upon contact, then it gently poked at Kirito's consciousness, curious to know his trainer.

The girl in front of him tilted his head in a somewhat cutely manner. It mischievously leaned forward, then looked at herself, even sniffing under her own armpits.

Like he had before in the beta, he directed his concentration onto the pokemon. In this world, combat commands were not given through orders; rather, the trainer controlled his pokemon through the power of his mind. Whether or not the pokemon obeyed was a testimony to the trust it had for its trainer, the bond they shared, or the willpower of the player. That was the uniqueness of Pokemon Universe.

There was a tendril of curiosity reaching out to his mind, then the girl in front of him shimmered. A small "pahf" sound as the image dissolved, for that was what it was; an image. What his starter really was, was a small, dark grey fox with a red whorled tuft of fur on its head. It flicked its little bushy tail.

«Zorua», Kirito realized, the Illusion pokemon. Dark type. They had the ability to construct illusions around themselves, insubstantial, yet perfectly realistic. An extremely rare pokemon, few had even seen one. Kirito hadn't even known that it was a part of the pool of starters.

She walked over to him and nuzzled his leg, then leaped onto his shoulder and gently yanked at his ear with its teeth. Kirito didn't feel the pain, but he did feel the tugging, and he ruffled her darker neck fur. They connected with their minds, and Kirito could feel her gently probing around, blinking as she recognized its trainer.

Then she leaped off and landed on the ground. She sniffed the air, then twisted around, chasing her tail. Kirito smiled and knelt, ruffling her head with his hand.

Within his mind, he directed the words at the Zorua: _"What is your name?"_

The fox looked at his face and actually managed to shrug, while her mind, still connected to Kirito's gave off a small questioning impulse. She stretched like a cat, sticking its behind in the air while stretching her little maw wide open, revealing a line of sharp teeth and a little pink tongue. The tuft at the top of her head shivered. Kirito watched, mildly fascinated.

She shook herself all over, then leaped into the air. A dim purple glow surrounded her body, a cocoon of violet color that seemed to constantly revolve around the Zorua. With another shimmer, the light dissipated, and she had turned into a pikachu. She flipped over, lightning bolt tail slicing dangerously close to Kirito's face, and landed on all fours before rearing back up onto her hind feet.

With a twitch of its ears, she looked at Kirito expectantly.

"Zero."

The name seemed to just occur naturally to him. The way the Zorua had build up her illusion, perhaps, and the movement of the light just made Kirito think of the circular number.

In any case, the pokemon seemed to like it. With a quick, "Pika!", she shook off the illusion, returning to its old foxy form. She licked her paws quickly, then jumped back onto Kirito's shoulder.

"_Zero it is." _Kirito thought.

Zero, as she was now known by, let off a distinct feeling of content before pawing at his shoulder, settling down and just hanging over it like a rag doll. Incredulous, Kirito watched as the little fox began to snore.

Shrugging to himself gently as not to wake Zero up, Kirito slid his finger along the back of his Pokelink, causing the holographic bracelet to appear again. This time, he moved down to the Skills section and tapped it, bringing out the skill tree.

Skills in Pokemon Universe were the abilities the trainer could learn and utilize alongside their partners in battle; the abilities pokemon learned and used were known as moves. Although not requiring a resource to be cast, they set off a global cooldown within a certain category and also, by default, had moderately high cooldowns. They were separated into two categories: Combat Skills and Support Skills.

Combat Skills were the attacks and defenses trainers used by themselves. These were organized into the six weapon types that could be utilized. Most players preferred these over the Support Skills, which included skills to buff their own partners during battle or to enhance a single attack to deal bonus damage and have a chance of inflicting a status effect.

Levels were, as always, attained through the collection of exp points, and when the gauge was full, it would be emptied and their level would go up. In Pokemon Universe, Trainers had a level separate from that of their pokemon as well. With each Pokemon level up, they would gain stats and hp according to their Individual Values and species base stat, while trainer level ups granted bonus HP, five stat points, and a skill point. At level one, each player started out with five of both kinds of points, as well as a base 250 HP.

A trainer earned experience proportional to his influence on the fight. For example, should a trainer stay back and command his pokemon to do all the work, he would receive a much lower amount of experience points compared to if he actively fought alongside his pokemon. Applying buffs, heals, and debuffs would also grant medium amounts, though not as much as active combat. Pokemon would receive their normal amount of points, but trainer exp fluctuated with their level of participation. Thus, it encouraged more teamwork and unity between a trainer and his partners.

However, trainers required a bit more experience to level up. Early on, there might be a noticeable level gap between the two, but as a player drew together his team of six pokemon, it would eventually even out. The higher levels for the pokemon would be split among the six, and it was designed so the trainer would eventually catch up.

At level one, like all other players, Kirito only had five points to allocate. Following the route he had formulated after extensive studying during beta, he invested all of his skill points into the support category, teching up to a minor buff for the pokemon (increased damage) and a paralysis augment with a chance of 3%. He did so because he had learned, during beta, that direct damage skills were almost useless without some stats to back it up, and were more suited to higher levels. His plan was to alternate allocation between the two until he reached the high-level passive regeneration skill «Battle Healing», then focus mainly on Combat. He traced the route with his finger.

Satisfied, Kirito closed his skill tree and then opened up his stats screen. In Pokemon Universe, there were several stats that enhance one's battle effectiveness: Power, Endurance, Speed, and Vitality. The stats mostly affected the player, though also granting bonuses to their pokemon as well. Power increased Attack and Special Attack; Endurance added additional health; Speed increased speed; Vitality augmented defense and special defense. Kirito chose the stats that would most benefit a solo: Power and Speed, investing three and two points into each respectively.

He took a peek at Zero out of the corner of his eye, and patted her on the head. The little fox's ears twitched in an expression of comfort.

Suddenly curious, Kirito slid out the pokemon overview option and tapped Zero's terminal. A small screen maximized in front of him, displaying a static image of a Zorua along with her HP value and its numerical stats. The exp gauge was empty, and the level read one, just like Kirito himself. But the stats...

_Whoa_.

The stats were extremely high for a level one pokemon. All of them, even defense and special defense, Zorua's lowest base stats. Her individual values were probably near the known cap, thirty one. In addition, in the known moves list, she had already learned an attack that she usually could not learn, most likely from breeding.

He looked at the little fox on his shoulder with newfound respect, and after stowing away the data, walked back down the alleyway and emerged out into the busy thoroughfare of the Eastern Avenue, which was mostly a shopping and market district.

All of the people around here had already received their starters, and most were proudly marching around with them. The street was quite wide, designed to let pokemon of all kinds through. And all kinds there were, Kirito noted as he watched two pikachu users stroll by, animatedly chatting while their partners stared at each other from their perches on their shoulders. A moment later, a player riding the back of a ponyta raced down the street, causing many players to swerve aside.

It was certainly a messy area. Kirito felt mildly overwhelmed by all the bustle around him, trying to rush through all the players to get to the field. The jostling around caused Zero to wake up, and she shook her head in annoyance, before yelping as Kirito nearly tripped over a random Numel.

Even as he watched some people showing off their Electabuzz, a Ralts, or a Cryogonal, he could feel some jealous stares upon the Zorua on his shoulder. A small flame of pride burned in his heart, and he scratched Zero behind his ears, which twitched in response.

He could feel discontent and a stifling feeling emanating from the Zorua's mind. Quietly, he shared his thoughts about the crowd as well, and tried to force his way through. He was rudely shoved aside by a passing man carrying a Roggenrola, and Zero loudly blew a- _Raspberry?-_ at them.

Finally, he managed to extract himself from the madness and lean against a stall, panting. The crowd was overwhelming, from both the amount of people and the amount of pokemon. Kirito had no idea why so many people would visit the East District first, rather than the west. The west street had been positively desolate compared to this.

_Such madness..._

A wave of agreement emanated from Zero, and she bobbed her little head up and down. Shaking herself down like a cat, she rested his head on his front paws, eyes alert and watchful. Kirito then tried to sidle out along the side of the road, and at least managed to make a bit more progress than before.

It took him nearly half an hour to make it even eighty percent of the way to the outer wall. Even against the wall, he was still buffeted back and forth by the crowd, the highlight of which was when a player called out his Munchlax and it landed on another player, causing a small verbal scuffle. There was even a small group of kids who just hemmed Kirito in, pestering him with questions on how they got that "pet". Both him and Zero were highly annoyed by now.

All of a sudden, there was a poke on his shoulder. Kirito whirled around, ready to give the kids another piece of his mind, but-

"Hey, you sure look like you know what'cher doing. Could you spare a few moments to teach me?"

* * *

Klein, the man who had tapped him, frowned in concentration as he stared at his Cyndaquil. In turn, the pokemon stared straight back at him with its slit-like eyes. The burning quills on his back flared slightly as he focused on Klein's face.

"By default, people automatically close off their mind to all other outside influences, even though there aren't really any naturally occurring ones. The «Soul Link» allows the pokemon's mind to connect with yours, which is the best way to communicate and give orders."

Klein's brow furrowed. "I think I can feel him... almost..."

"It's going to feel very weird, but it comes to you naturally once you do it the first time. Your cyndaquil-"

"Blaze."

How original.

"-Blaze, already knows how to perform the link, but you need to open up your mind to him. You're naturally rejecting the contact, relax." Kirito gestured vaguely at Zero, who was lying spread-eagled on the grass, eyes half open. From their «Soul Link», Kirito could feel that she was already mostly asleep, her mind fuzzy and dreamingly soft. For a moment, Kirito had to force off a yawn, then continued, "If I concentrate too hard on something, my mind will also naturally reject the link. The trick is to keep calm and be fluid, open. The ability to keep the link open with six pokemon, control yourself, and to be able to make strategic decisions is what defines the best trainers."

They were sitting in a grass plain, some distance from the gates to Starting City. As far as they could see, grass and the occasional forest until the hills obscured what lay beyond. The sun beat down on them with a frightening intensity. Combined with the smell of the grass, the soporific effect it produced was enough to put Zero to sleep almost immediately. The two trainers seemed to be mostly unaffected, whereas Blaze seemed to enjoy it immensely, rolling back and forth on the ground before trying to perform the link.

The design and rendering of the open world around them was astonishing. Exactly like reality, clouds drifted dreamily overhead beneath a sunlit sky. Kirito squinted as he gazed into the distance, catching sight of a random flock of pidgeys as they flew by. Upon focusing on several of them, their species name along with a cursor and HP bar appeared above their heads. When he turned his attention to the wispy details on a passing cloud, the interfaces disappeared.

"So basically, I have to learn to think openly? Bend my head to do something it doesn't want to do? That's pretty tough."

Kirito retracted his gaze from the clouds and set them back onto the red-haired man. "I never said it wasn't, Klein."

Klein grinned sheepishly. His avatar was a young, handsome man with long, red hair. A headband wrapped itself somewhat diagonally around his noggin, and his eyes were rather large and round. Combined with his small nose, the entire look gave him a raffish, naughty look. For some reason, Kirito thought that his cyndaquil, Blaze, resembled him greatly. Perhaps it was the headband, or the hair color.

"Well, I guess I'll try to do it, then. I think I've almost got it."

Klein returned to his little kneeling session on the ground, staring at Blaze in the eyes. After watching her for a little while, Kirito idly reached out to Zero's mind and rattled a bell sound in that little brain of hers. The Zorua physically yawned and stretched, eyes blinking slowly as she came to his feet. She took off after his trainer, who had run off a little ways.

Kirito quickly looked over the area, then locked his focus onto a Rattata that had just strolled out of the grass. In this area, the most common kinds of Pokemon included Rattata, Zigzagoon, Sentret, Bidoof, and Lillipup. They were quite mediocre by many player's standards, but their evolved forms were quite strong and a lot easier to obtain compared to other species, which made them a popular pick for newer players. To Kirito, all they were good for was cheap experience points.

As a reaction to be focused on, a red diamond that slowly rotated around the target's head. In addition, its HP bar appeared, a green meter wrapped around its head that signified it was at full health.

Quickly singling it out from its surroundings and sending the target to Zero, who gave a thought of consent, Kirito ordered Zero to run towards the Rattata, who, in reaction to being engaged, bared its teeth and jumped at them as well. Zero leaped to intercept, they collided, rolling away in a small bundle of fur and claws. Through the link, Kirito could feel the Zorua attacking his target, and mentally directed her to use the ability «Dark Pulse».

Zero pushed away, flipping back over her head and landing on all fours, before focusing. She lifted his head and opened her little mouth, quickly gathering a small ball of dark energy that shifted to dark blue, dark green, and basically all shades of dark over and over. With a small, "_Rah!_", she snapped it forward and launched the pulse at the shocked rat.

It made contact with a blast, dissipating as the force was absorbed by the Rattata's body and rings of leftover energy radiated out from the impact point. Reeling, the pokemon's HP bar quickly decreased, dropping below half and turning a sickly yellow.

But before it could regain its footing, Kirito charged forward. He had already inserted his weapons chip into his «Pokelink», and with a quick gesture, a cloud of data particles coalesced around his hand, forming into a gleaming chrome blade with green lines running down the sides. In one swift movement, he brought it up and over and smashed the Rattata into the dirt with the sharp end. Not entirely done yet, he swept the weapon back and, like a golf swing, knocked the poor thing into the air with a form Tiger Woods would have envied.

Its HP bar went from yellow, to red, to nothing. A sinister _mrrrreeewwww_ sound accompanied its descent into death.

The Rattata, its HP spent, flew back at an impressive speed under the force of the impact and shattered into countless blue shards. Kirito, feeling slightly sorry for the Rattata, straightened and beheld the battle rewards screen that appeared after the enemy's demise.

Both of them, Kirito and Zero, had participated equally in that "slightly" one-sided fight, and therefore received equal amounts of experience. They had already defeated several of these "small fry" wild pokemon while waiting for Klein to figure out how to link (which had taken well over two hours), so their bars were about half full, Zero's very much ahead of his trainer due to the exp difference.

"Oy, Kirito!"

Kirito turned to see Klein waving at him, running over where he had been sitting

"I've got it! I can feel this little guy's head!"

"Congrats, Klein." Kirito's mouth twitched upwards as Klein tripped and fell comically onto his face. To prove Klein's words, Blaze suddenly tried to scratch his noggin with both paws, indicating that he could feel some of the discomfort Klein was experiencing. "So that's how you will be fighting in Pokemon Universe. Mobs here are quite formidable, and using the link is pretty much one of the only and easiest ways to match up to them."

"I can tell." The man paused as he apparently conferred with his partner. "It's incredible. It's like he's a part of my head, this little guy. An extension of my mind. He thinks and feels, just like-"

"-a regular human being. An extremely advanced AI, courtesy of Kayaba Akihiko." Kirito finished.

Klein shook his head in wonder. "Of course. I can't even believe that man is a mere human like us." He looked down at the cyndaquil next to him, whom flared his back quills in response to some thought. "He's like a god. To be create something like this, I deeply admire him."

Kirito chose not to respond, agreeing completely with Klein's words, and simply nodded his head. Tracking the development of Pokemon Universe from the first moment it was announced and the rumors were confirmed, Kirito had always held the head developer Kayaba Akihiko in very high regard. He had managed to engineer the technology, in addition to the completely revolutionary Virtual Reality equipment, for the perfect AI, a true AI, for the partners and enemies of this world: the Pokemon.

He had done a superb job. The system had the power to select random snippets of personality and physical traits from a databank of over a million pieces of code, and synthesize them together to form a completely unique Pokemon, from mental to physical. Every single being of AI in this world, from the Rattata he had just defeated to an extremely rare pokemon that lay somewhere out there in the higher leveled areas, was special. No two were the same, unlike that of all other MMORPGs. From the moment he had logged into the beta test of the game, Kirito knew this game was special.

This was all owed to the brilliance of Kayaba Akihiko. Small wonder that many people, Kirito included, idolized him so. Even many world-renown professors were awed by his ingenuity.

"Anyways... pushing that aside," Kirito finally announced as he did that with his own admiring thoughts, "you know how to battle in this world?"

Klein scratched his head and looked down at the Pokelink on his wrist, stylized red and black. "I think so... I put in my weapons chip from that assistant guy, but I don't know how to open my options menu to set the callout gesture, like he said."

Kirito sighed. For all his genius, Kayaba Akihiko had still yet to implement an actual beginner's guide that was actually any use. "Vague or nonexistent tutorials, hooray. You open up your menu by sliding your finger down the slit on the back of your Pokelink."

The redheaded man followed his instructions, swiping his index finger down the line. The ring of options materialized, circling around his arm slowly. Klein's mouth dropped open in a perfect "o".

"Oh. It was there all along."

Kirito rubbed the back of his head, deciding not to have any high hopes for the newer playerbase.

"In any case... set your callout gesture and let's see how well you fare against that... Zigzagoon over there." Kirito pointed and Klein's gaze followed it to land on the spiky-haired Pokemon whose brown coat stood out against the lush green scenery.

As it turned out, it proved to be quite a challenge. Lacking good coordination and feeling the strain of commanding two beings at once, Klein only managed to bring the Zigzagoon to half HP before he was dropped into the yellow zone along with Blaze. Kirito and Zero watched with slightly amused looks on their faces.

"This guy is tough! Yeowch!"

Klein yelped as his adversary ploughed into his stomach in a tackle attack, dropping his HP by another chunky percentage. Had Blaze not been out, he would have taken a lot more damage; trainers took mitigated damage based on how many of their Pokemon had been deployed. Their defenses were quite weak, and this bonus was a necessity to survive.

In retaliation, Klein flailed his sword-type weapon like a madman, managing to catch the Zigzagoon with several glancing blows and knocking it back. Blaze attempted to move forward, but as Klein got up and stepped back for some distance, stopped, giving up some free damage.

Kirito noted that, and called out to him. "Don't mix up commands to your own body with commands to your partner. Your Pokemon. If your send them to both, you two with be stepping forwards and backwards together forever. You need to learn to think, to manage your thoughts and commands efficiently."

Klein screwed up his face in concentration. "This game is starting to sound more and more like a brainpower-training program to me every second that passes."

"Like the link, once you get the hang of it, it opens up a whole new world and level of possibilities to you."

Klein closed his eyes, and sighed, gathering his focus. His sword lowered into a ready position, and the cyndaquil next to him suddenly straightened, a wisp of red flicking out of its quills.

The Zigzagoon decided to be the one to attack first this time. It growled softly, then charged in a quick tackle attack. In retaliation, Klein and Blaze leaped in separate directions. The wild pokemon skidded to a halt, looking both ways in confusion, not able to decide in which direction to attack.

Klein lashed in with a simple strike, a «Vertical», one of the skills learned by default upon equipping a sword. The impact hit the pokemon squarely o n the neck area, dealing a bit of bonus damage. Making up its mind, the Zigzagoon chose to counterattack, turning to deal a painful headbutt, but Klein had already drawn back out of range.

However, the wild Pokemon had exposed its back. Even as Klein withdrew, Blaze moved in and attacked. Charging and the leaping, it collided with the Zigzagoon and sent it flying half a foot off the ground.

As the Zigzagoon landed, Klein and Blaze rushed after it. They repeatedly beat at it, Klein with his weapon, and Blaze with his headbutts and tackles, until their battered opponent was defeated and vaporized into sparkles of light. Kirito watched incredulously at the last bit of the fight, not knowing whether to laugh at the spectacle or feel pity for the late little critter.

Klein straightened up and broke into a big smile. "Yay, I did it!"

"Sure, you did... But that Zigzagoon, it was pretty much the base, the lowest level of an opponent you will ever encounter. Similar to, say, slimes from your average MMORPG."

"Whaaaaaaa!? I thought it was a mini boss or something. It looked a whole lot more intimidating than all those purple rats you were fighting. Plus it took longer."

Kirito knew that pokemon really had never kicked off from launch. Even though Kirito had loved the game series, most gamers had rejected the game as "boring" and "repetitive" in addition to being "unsatisfactory", preferring their new-fangled MMORPGs to the solo play of training your little critters. It had received relatively low scores from gaming websites, and eventually fell into obscurity. Hardly a thousand copies of pokemon games still existed, and websites dedicated to hosting pokemon information were eventually taken down. It became a forgotten game.

Pretty much the only thing that had gone viral was the question, "Are you a boy or a girl?", commonly used to describe useless questions.

So this was all relatively new to people like Klein. Kirito scratched the back of Zero's head idly; the little fox was half asleep on the grass again. Apparently that was the downside to Zero's good stats and Individual Values: a large crippling susceptibleness to sleep effects. "Well, at least you know now. You can check the data on that pokemon in the «Pokedex» option in your menu. It," Kirito raised a finger to forestall Klein's evident question. "is basically an encyclopedia on pokemon. It automatically records data the longer you observe a pokemon. Encountering gets you basic information. More time spent will increase your data entry's preciseness until 100%, which is a completed entry. You get some rewards for passing several landmark numbers of completed info bios."

Klein nodded slowly, mouth dropping open a little. "That's... handy. Um, could you repeat that?"

"Nevermind. You'll understand, it's not as complicated as the link." Kirito waved his hand in a slightly redundant gesture. Zero's tail twitched a bit in unison. "Just find a PC terminal in a communications hub in any of the major towns and wire Professor Oak once you think you've gotten enough entries. So, in your short encounter with that zigzagoon, You should have recorded some of its info... Check."

Klein muttered an "Ooooookaaay" while sliding his finger down the strip and calling out the menu. The circle of options wrapped around his arm formed and sharpened, and Klein flicked past several options before locating the dex. Poking it, he raised an eyebrow in surprise as a list, mostly blanked out, appeared in front of him.

"Search zigzagoon in the search bar in the top right hand corner for information. Later, though... I'd like to train right now. Do you wanna come along?"

"Mmhmm..." Klein blatantly ignored the second part as he typed the name into the virtual keyboard that levitated in front of him and reading the bits of information that had appeared with apparent interest.

"...of course, you haven't been near them long enough for a complete entry yet. Not for a good while."

"Shame. This information actually looks interesting. Like reading a food magazine while eating dinner or something." He paused, as if contemplating something. "Dinner..."

Klein started to space out. A drop of virtual drool rolled out of the corner of his slacked mouth. Interestingly enough, the Cyndaquil next to him also stared into the distance, with its own drop of saliva to mirror that of its trainer's. Side-by-side, they looked uncannily similar.

Kirito waved a hand in front of Klein's face. "Oi. Klein." Zero lazily got up and did the same to Cyndaquil, shifting her balance to one paw and poking Blaze's snout with the other.

"Pizza... yum. Pizza... cheesy..."

Kirito felt his own stomach rumble. Slightly annoyed now, he lightly bopped Klein on the head._ "Klein."_

He seemed to waken. "Oh, sorry. Just thinking about that yummy, yum yum pizza I ordered. It should come soon... I might log off in a bit."

"Of course. It's not like you can live on Taurus Steak and Goldeen 'n chips all day. We still have to have some real food."

"Live on whaaaaaaaaaa?"

"Nothing. Just some tasty food items somewhere on one of the middle-level routes, I think. Although, if I remember correctly, Goldeen 'n chips comes a lot earlier."

In this game, in virtual reality, if a player went a long time without eating food, they would feel some kind of sensation akin to hunger. Although it wasn't a debuff, nor did it affect gameplay, the feeling was quite disconcerting. Although it could be cured by consuming some foodstuffs, it was also a reminder to the player that they should log off and get some real-life sustennance.

During the beta, one tester nearly starved to death because the NerveGear cut off all signals from the body to the brain during play, and he never noticed himself growing weaker by the day. He pulled off four all-nighters in a row, not even noticing when he went to the bathroom without using the bathroom, so to speak. He slept in the inns in-game, and would have starved if he hadn't finally been booted because of a power outage in his house. Since then, the hunger indicator had been implemented to prevent further incidents.

A taste engine had also been implemented, and although Argus had been pretty secretive about it, it was quite well known that it could produce almost any taste in the world virtually. It was a common practice to indulge oneself in the virtual world in order to avoid getting fat. Kirito, as a matter of fact, privately felt everything tasted better in virtual reality.

"Hmm, then I might try some. I hear there's tons of tasty things in this world." Klein and Blaze licked their chops in unison. Kirito had to smile at that.

"That there is."

Klein let out a deep breath, eyes showing that he was already floating in a faraway land filled with delicious tidbits. Then he seemed to think of something, blinking himself back to reality.

"Oh, and how do we capture more pokemon again? I can assemble a full team of six, right?"

Kirito sat down with a sigh, looking up into the sky that overlooked this nearly limitless world. It all looked so real, so perfect. So picturesque.

"You use Capture Energy Packs that you can load onto your pokelink. They theoretically provide the energy needed for the link to capture, and you just point your link at them and try to capture. The system will recognize your movement. A bar will appear on your link to show how long until capture, and if it manages to break free of the capture beam, you'll lose the pack as well."

"Oh... That's unfortunate." Klein pursed his lips as he thought, Kirito guessed, of all the packs he'd have to buy.

"It was like that in the original pokemon games as well, except that they used devices called Pokeballs. There was no Pokelink either."

"Is that so?"

Kirito nodded. Tilting his eyes to the side, he watched the bundle of furs that was Zero quiver as she yawned again, even kicking out in her sleep. His mind wandered, thinking of all the pokemon out there, just as unique as the sleepy Zorua in front of him. Over ten thousand unique beings out there.

The thought that one man would be able to create all of that was astounding.

Klein evidently shared his thoughts as he coughed and murmured, "I still can't believe that man is a mere mortal."

They fell silent for a while, only broken by the sounds of Blaze frolicking among the daisies, accidentally setting a few unlucky ones on fire. The sun began to dip below the mountains in the west, setting the sky on fire just like the flowers.

Eventually Klein got up with a grunt from where he was sitting cross-legged on the ground. "Pizza should be here by now. Imma go eat."

Kirito conceded with a tilt of his head. "Alright then." He replied, as he turned his attention back to the sunset. It really was a beautiful sunset, just like those in real life, only better. He barely noticed the sound of Blaze returning to Klein's pokelink, or the signature ding of the menu being opened.

He watched the sun for a while longer before realizing he still hadn't heard the sound of a logging out player. He turned to see Klein staring at the menu on his arm, idly tapping an area with one finger repeatedly while appearing to be thinking hard.

"What's wrong?"

Klein looked up, biting his lip. "There's no logout button."

"Wat."

Exactly how it was spelled. A tone completely flat and devoid of emotion.

"I don't seem to be able to logout. The button, it's in options, right?" He gestured towards the device on his arm. "You take a look?"

Kirito sidled over, drawing a line down his own link and calling out the options sub-menu in a few deft movements. His eyes flicked down at the selections, and he opened his mouth to say-

The button really wasn't there.

It used to be there, during the beta. He remembered it vividly, a button tinged with magenta, an exit door symbol inscribed into it. He had pressed it many times before, and now reflexively poked the empty space over and over.

"...It's really gone. Huh. That's strange."

Some inkling of his growing concern made its way across the link, and Zero wandered over to where they were, yawning, shaking himself down. She bristled, then leaped into the air and activated her Illusion ability, wearing that female image of hers again. Placing a comforting hand on Kirito's shoulder, she peered over at the glowing interface of the Pokelink curiously.

"Really, is this a bug?" Klein tossed his hands into the air in sudden frustration. "They're probably making my pizza cold! I need to log out now! My pizza... nice, juicy pizza... a cold pizza, ack! No!"

Kirito stared at the space, thinking hard, ignoring Klein's spazzing out. A missing logout option was most likely a bug, something that should be immediately fixed...

"It's not possible to disconnect from the server without a button or a... in those rare cases, a power outage or connection failure. This is really serious..." Kirito scrolled back up the options and pressed GM Assistance. "I'll see if I can contact a GM."

In the first few days of service of Pokemon Universe, Argus had promised round-the-clock Game Master service, just in case any bugs still remained after the combing from the beta test. With over a hundred supposedly online and ready to answer issues, Kirito supposed he could get a hold of one within five minutes at most.

But the screen that popped up in front of him still read, "Awaiting contact" after seven minutes. Kirito finally closed the window.

"No luck?" Klein inquired. He grimaced when the black-haired boy shook his head. "Darn it... What's wrong? Ny pizza's growing old right now!"

Klein began to place both hands on his head and squeeze, trying to rip something invisible off. Kirito immediately realized what he was doing, and reached out to stop him,.. "Klein, that won't work. The NerveGear reroutes all signals from your brain to here, instead of your body. You can't take off the headset by yourself."

"Then what do we do? Are we stuck here?" Klein, far from stopping, pulled on his hair harder. "I can't wait all day!"

"The only thing we can do right now... is wait, Klein." Kirito looked back at Zero, who tilted her head. "We can't do anything, and I think, the only thing that can be done is wait. The GMs will fix this soon enough, they've managed to create this world, surely they can deal with a bug like this relatively quickly."

Klein hesitated, then slowly nodded. "Maybe you're right..."

"ARGUS is famous for its attention towards its playerbase, something lots of other gaming companies normally do not do. They'll be on high alert to fix this, don't worry. But still..." Kirito placed one hand on his forehead, enticing Zero to do the same with her paw. "This is quite a strange bug."

Klein looked at him. "Huh?"

Kirito shook his head. "Nothing."

The red-headed man looked at him strangely, but Kirito ignored the pointed look. Really, though, the missing logout button seemed strange to Kirito.

He slid a finger through his link and drew out the options menu again. There it was, the graphics, the interface, and then the- empty space. There was no selection underneath; when Kirito tried to scroll down, it stretched a little, then retracted back to the interface option like those old Apple iphone 7s.

It looked too smooth. If it was a bug, it should have been a scrambled amount of code. Some kind of error, a contradiction of clauses and statements. During the beta, there had been a menu error which left it completely illegible, every label covered with weird symbols and lines. But the list ended at interface, and he tried scrolling past it again. Nope, it bounced back.

If it had been a bug, it disappeared because of an error, then something should have looked ragged. Something should have looked obviously wrong. But the empty space was seamless, professional looking, as if nothing had been there in the first place.

It looked like it had been purposefully removed.

Zero looked at him with a questioning expression, blinking her eyes. Kirito sent a dissenting thought, and shook his head. _It's nothing._

Perhaps he was just being paranoid.

Zero gave a little shrug before flopping over onto the grass,, spread-eagled. Kirito watched as the girl began to, again, snore. It amazed him at how quickly she could fall asleep. He reached over and tweaked her nose, causing her to snort cutely.

Even if it was an illusion, it was still almost exactly like a ditto's transformation, only that she reverted after taking an attack. More accurately, it was like a cloak. A very realistic "cloak".

"My piiizzaaaaaaa!"

Kirito looked up to see Klein silhouetted against the sunset, both hands on his head and squatting in a typical anime "frustrated" position.

"My pizza! C'mon, you guys had better reimburse me for that pizza you're putting to waste! It's going cold!"

As if in response, a sudden sound rang out throughout the area, nearly knocking Klein clean off his feet in surprise. Kirito stiffened as well, before registering that the sound was not anything dangerous, he hoped.

Zero was abruptly awakened and she sprang to her feet, her illusion dissipating as soon as she lost her focus. Kirito snorted as he saw her bushy tail stick straight out, stiff as a board, like a cat's. Her eyes were wide, and she swung her head back and forth, looking for the source of the sound.

But there wasn't one. It reverberated through their ears, a sound with no source. It was as if the whole world was ringing, once per second, a repetitive sound that cut into their brains.

_GONG... GONG... GONG..._

A deep, brass, bell sound. Zero whimpered, backing away from what she envisioned as the source of the sound, then twisting around and backing up again, because the bells were everything. Kirito reached over and picked her up, placing her on his shoulder, where she seemed to relax a little.

Klein picked himself up off the floor cautiously. "What's this?"

All of a sudden, Zero blinked, then dissolved into light and vanished into Kirito's Pokelink. The device shuddered as it received the pokemon, and before Kirito could react, began to glow.

"Wha-"

Was all he could enunciate before his body was broken up into data cubes and sucked into the air, like there was a vacuum somewhere above him. Klein vanished as well, leaving the plains empty and the beautiful sunset unwatched.

A breeze rolled through the grass, causing them to sway back and forth in a rhythmic motion.

* * *

With a shower of square particles of data, Kirito reformed. He blinked, suddenly disoriented.

He heard a sound behind him, and turned to see Klein stumbling as he landed and reformed. Reflexively, his hand shot out and grabbed Klein's arm, holding him up.

"Thanks, man."

Klein grunted as he straightened, patting himself down instinctively. Kirito looked around, watching the crowd of player that milled around them. Periodically, more clouds of particles fell from the sky and derezzed into recognizable shapes, which solidified into human forms. Looking up and around, he saw the familiar architecture of Starting City's central plaza.

"We're in the central plaza..." Klein echoed his thoughts.

Kirito frowned, then glanced down at the device on his arm. The fading red light of the sunset glinted off of the link gem socketed into it, and the button that contained Zero's Animus pulsed with a dark blue light.

"That was forced teleport. By the looks of it..." Kirito looked around him, getting a rough estimate of the numbers in the crowd. And more were arriving by the second. "It seems like the whole population of this game has been recalled here."

Klein covered his eyes with one hand and squinted into the sky. "Are they going to announce something?"

"Most likely... maybe they've fixed the logout bug."

Klein swiped out his options before Kirito could. "Nope. Nothing changed."

"An announcement that they're fixing it?"

He shook his head. "I dunno. Don't ask me."

The crowd settled down momentarily, and there was a long lull where there was no talking, nor any more players arriving via teleport. But then it flared up again, a few thousand questions being asked to no one in particular.

"Hey, what is this?"

"Can we go home now?"

"What's wrong with the logout button?"

Klein scratched the back of his head. "We going anywhere? Hope they announce it soon."

Kirito gazed across the crowd of people, a multitude of people that moved back and forth as they called questions into the air. "At least we aren't packed in like sardines, like on the subway. Thank goodness this area is this large."

"Come on, I've got a meeting tomorrow and I've gotta sleep early!"

"Homework! Homework... my teacher's gonna kill meeeeeeee..."

"Hey, look up! Up! Up there!"

The last one caught Kirito's attention, mostly because it didn't carry the whining tone of the other players; instead, it was tinged with urgency. He looked up.

There was something in the sky. Kirito squinted, focusing his eyes on that red diamond. Just barely, he could pick out the words "WARNING" and "SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT" emblazoned in a deep, pulsing crimson.

Klein, apparently, had spotted it as well. His lips slowly moved, silently mouthing, "System announcement?".

It flared brightly, then suddenly spread across the sky like a virus. Multiplying at a fantastic speed, rolling and covering the sky like a stain of corruption. As far as Kirito could see, the sky was covered in red. From one end of the open world to the other.

If anyone had not noticed the announcement before, they certainly noticed it now. Cries of surprise echoed across the crowd, several of them falling over in astonishment. Kirito stared hard at the notices, which were now changing shades of red rhythmically, like a beating heart.

"Well, it seems they're gonna tell us now? They're fixing it?" Klein asked, eyes glued to the phenomenon above.

_Fixing it? They didn't have to pull everyone back here if they're fixing it. _Kirito's eyes narrowed. _Forced mass teleports are for evacuating players out of a bugged area... If they recalled everyone, that must mean this announcement is gamebreakingly important._

Out loud, Kirito absently replied, "I think so."

A flicker of something arced across his vision. Blinking rapidly, he stepped back, instinctively broadening his focus to catch the movement again. Just barely, he managed to find it again; a small black dot that enlarged out of nowhere, then shrunk back to nothingness.

Kirito stepped back, eyes narrowing. They flicked back and forth, his pherical vision locking onto several other balls of black. They spread out, then vanished, some lingering for a few seconds before dissipating.

The air smelled like charged iron. Sonething prickled on the back of Kirito's neck.

"Klein..."

That was as far as he got when the air above the gathered players _collapsed _upon itself. A horrible squelching sound resounded as the air, even a passing pidgey, was sucked into a black vacuum and into somewhere else. A pitch-black, hole of night that just hung in the air, emanating a horrible empty feeling.

The edges of the void were blurry, fuzzy, warped, fizzling in and out of existence. Drips of nothing pooled around the rift, quickly forming and then dissipating. The crowd went absolutely silent. Kirito focused on the absence, and just barely, he could make out some sort of blurry outline. Something... a waterfall?

But even that faint line was blocked, obscured by something.

Slowly, a mass of darkness rolled out of the emptiness, churning and turning on itself. Sucking in the light around it, the blob shifted, twisting, turning, and eventually formed a vaguely humanoid shape.

The crowd was still silent, as if everyone was holding their breath.

A few patches of color appeared on the thing, and they quickly spread, covering the body at the same rate the warning notice had covered the sky. In the end, what appeared was a hooded figure clad in red robes, embroidered with the distinctive green patterns of a Game Master, almost ten times the size of a normal man, floating in the air.

The hem of the robes fluttered for a bit in an non existent breeze and settled. The figure did not move.

Abruptly, the players broke the silence all at once.

"Who is that?"

"He looks creepy. Where did he come from?"

"Game Master, can we go home?"

"Did you fix it all yet?"

"Why does he have no face?"

With a jolt, Kirito realized the robed figure, indeed, had no face. The inside of the hood was shaded in darkness, but there should have been some vague hint of a face; a mouth, or perhaps a hint of skin. A protruding nose. But there was nothing.

The figure stretched out its arms, as if to embrace something, or in an expression of grandness. With the movement, its sleeves shifted, and Kirtio blinked in surprise when he saw the the hands, the white gloves, were levitating on their own. There was nothing joining them to- whatever it was inside the robes, a dismembered limb that gave off a distinct unnerving aura.

From nowhere, just like the bells, a voice rumbled. Calm, cool, collected, and deep.

"Players, I welcome you all to my world."

_My world?_

Kirito's thought was echoed by Klein, as well as many other players as they all whispered the same words.

A pause, then: "I am Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Pokemon Universe, the one who engineered the NerveGear and the AI of the Pokemon that are now your partners."

_Kayaba Akihiko!_

The man himself, the driving force behind the game and the technology used to make it. Again, Kirito could feel the bubbly awe and admiration welling up inside of him. His hero, his idol, was right there.

The rest of the players were enraptured in a similar state of awe, looking up at the figure with reverent eyes.

"Now... I assume you have all realized that the Logout button..." With slow, deliberate movements, Kayaba reached into his robes and pulled out a massively sized pokelink. He traced a finger down it and called out the menu, scrolling down to options and holding his finger above the empty space. "...has dissapeared from the options menu of your pokelink."

A few thousand of the ten thousand players copied his movements, learning for the first time how to access the interface. A few chuckled in embarresment, while most nodded in accordance with Kayaba's words.

Kirito waited. Since it was the man himself who was announcing it, it occurred to the black-haired boy that it actually a very serious issue that Kayaba had to deal with himself. Had he fixed it?

"This is not a bug."

The slow, rumbling voice enunciated the five words with the clearest tone that could possibly be made.

It took three seconds for the words to reach everyone's brains.

_What?_

"I repeat..." Kayaba raised an arm. His tone remained calm, almost uncaring. "This is not a bug. This is an engineered, purposeful feature of Pokemon Universe. I repeat, purposeful. This was intended."

"It was intended? We can't log out?"

"Haha, we always liked your little jokes, Kayaba. Can we please go home now?"

"Come on, what does he mean?"

The crowd's general tone was humorous, light. But Kirito was beginning to feel the first signs of cold sweat.

_Purposeful... feature? Intended?_

"_This is not a bug."_

"Aw, come on. He's joking right?" Klein grinned, placing two hands behind his head. "Game Masters always like their jokes. They're famous for them."

Kirito thought, _But Kayaba Akihiko is also known for never making jokes._

"I-" Kirito began before he was cut short by Kayaba's next words.

"This is a feature, players. Until you manage to reach Mt. Silver and defeat the final boss who resides at the top of the mountain, you cannot log out. You cannot return to reality."

The chatter began to wind down, eventually dwindling to nothing.

"To make sure this policy is enforced, the NerveGears on your heads have been programmed. The mass media, and presumably everyone in the world, has already been informed of what I am about to tell you. If an outside force tries to remove the headset, the sensors on the inside of the helmet will overload, sending a strong electromagnetic pulse through your head and effectively burning your brain out." A pause. "Killing you."

After a stunned absence of sound, the crowd simmered, murmuring amongst itself. A few voices rang out louder than most, carrying various interpretations of, "You're kidding me, right?"

Klein was one of them. His hands were now down by his sides, and he looked at Kirito incredulously. "He's joking, isn't he? That's not possible, if there was something lethal in the NerveGears, they wouldn't have been allowed to sell them!"

For a moment, Kirito agreed. Then, with dawning realization...

"The structure of the sensors... They're very similar. To microwaves." Kirito reached up with one hand and gingerly touched the top of his head. "Old microwave ovens. If too much energy was wired into them... They could theoretically overheat your brain and kill you, but that is usually averted by the usage of a limiter."

"But-"

Kayaba cut off Klein just like he had with Kirito earlier. "Unfortunately, there were some who ignored these warnings and continued to attempt to remove the headsets. As a result, 214 players have already been killed. Their brains, I'm sorry to say, have been destroyed."

_214 players!?_

"I... I, refuse to believe that." Klein whispered. Then he shook his head and said with a much stronger tone, "I refuse to believe this!"

"As proof," The monstrous apparition before them waved a hand, causing numerous windows to appear around him. The began to spread out, assigning themselves to have at least one in viewing range of everyone in the plaza. "Here are some credible news reporting organizations you might recognize... rest assured, the news you see here are currently being broadcasted on every station across the world."

Kirito squinted at the one closest to him: A broadcast by a station quite familiar to him, Teletama. There was a shot from the side, a reporter in front of a house, speaking hurriedly into her microphone while gesturing wildly behind her, at the house. A line of text rolled past underneath: "Pokemon Universe Players held hostage under death threats. 214 casualties. Demands not clear."

Apparently they thought Kayaba was a kidnapper of some kind.

The scene switched to a quick shot of a person wearing a NerveGear headset, then switched back to outside before Kirito could get a lock on the person's face. The reporter, face ashen, seemed to be slightly overwhelmed by what she was reporting.

"With this," Kayaba continued, "I can assure you that death by outside influence, the risk thereof, has been significantly reduced. You may focus on clearing the game without any fear of that."

All the screens blinked out, vanishing.

The crowd finally reacted, showing the first signs of panic.

"Clear the game!? You want us to play a game when you can kill us at any moment!?"

"What do you mean? What is this!?"

"Enough with the jokes, let us go home!"

"But," Akihiko continued as if oblivious to the increasingly frantic cries from beneath him. "Do take note of this: you can no longer respawn in this game. Nor, I say, will your partners, the pokemon."

A deathly shiver ran down Kirito's back.

"Upon reaching zero HP, your avatar will be deleted from the Pokemon Universe memory banks, and any surviving pokemon you own will be set free. At the same time, the sequence in the NerveGear will begin, and your brain will be..."

Pause. If one listened closely enough, they would have been able to hear some hint of an indescribable emotion in his next word.

"...destroyed."

Nobody reacted. Nobody could react.

_You will die._

_Once your HP reaches zero, you will die._

Erased and deleted. Wiped clean off the deign of time, as if you had never existed in the first place.

_What... _Kirito wet his lips. _What is happening... I don't understand..._

Not surprisingly, nobody had said a word before Kayaba lifted his right hand again. "There is only one way to release yourself from this game, as I have mentioned before. Advance through Pokemon Universe's open world, conquer the towers, and advance to Mt. Silver. Fight your way through the dungeon and meet the final boss who resides at the top, and defeat him. Upon fulfillment of these conditions, the game will be cleared."

The entire world, the entire universe, seemed to be holding its breath. Everyone in that plaza stared at the robed Game Master in front of them in horror.

"Let me explain... as a favor to you. Regrettably, I never really had much time to program a decent tutorial." Kayaba waved his hand, tapping some of the options on his menu.

A full map of the entire continent, the entire world of Pokemon Universe appeared. Another option was selected, and the continent filled up with color. The majority of it was colored red, although the bottom tip of the continent, as well as some of the surrounding area, were white.

Kayaba gestured at the map, and intoned, "This is a map of the world you currently reside in. Mt. Silver is here..." A finger tapped the top of the map, on the farthest point from Starting City that was possible. "The goal is to become stronger, fight through the entire continent, and reach the mountain."

"Pokemon Universe features an open world interface. You are free to roam anywhere, but it is highly inadvisable to venture into unexplored territory... for reasons that should be fairly obvious. Now, this red area," Another indication. "is enemy territory. There are many towers scattered throughout the land. They are, you might call them, dungeons. At the top of each tower resides a Leader, which you might refer to as a boss. These towers mark the surrounding area as hostile territory so long as they are controlled by the leaders."

Kirito knew this already, but he listened, enraptured, as if he was hearing all this for the first time.

"Waves of marauding pokemon will constantly spawn from these towers and attack nearby player-held settlements. Starting City is, of course, immune to these attacks. An enemy-held town has its Pokemon Center and all trainer facilities disabled, and you must clear out the area for it to return to normal. In response, you may capture the towers and stem this flow of aggression by fighting through them and defeating the boss at the top. Towers, understandably, can be recaptured when no more players or allied NPCs are left there."

A section of land near the bottom of the land blinked, switching back and forth from white to red, before finally settling on red. Slowly, the transformation spread up the map, a mass of flashing lights, ending with the northern tip being the only red territory remaining. It flashed blue several times.

"In this fashion, you must reclaim the land and eventually make your way up to the north edge of the map, where Mt. Silver resides. Fight your way to the top, and defeat the final boss, and then all remaining players will be able to log out."

The map vanished. Kayaba lowered his hand, and seemed to breathe out. The front of the blood red robes rose and fell as if with a breeze- but there was no breeze.

No voices were raised. Nobody made a sound; all simply stared at the harbinger in silent horror, eyes wide. A few seconds passed, then a number of people drew breaths in preparation to speak.

But Kayaba cut them off, again. The sky seemed to darken with every word he spoke.

"I assure you, this is no joke. This is your reality now; your death is permanent. This, is your reality, and your life is at stake. Not that of your avatar's; yours." Kayaba's hand curled into a fist, one finger out, pointing at the assembled players. "To show you this, I have deposited an item into your Pokelink storage databanks. Please retrieve it. It is my gift to you."

_A gift?_

Kirito slid a finger down the link on his arm, causing the menu to materialize around it. Looking on at his and Klein's actions, other players around them copied their movements, evidently having never done the action before. Ignoring the curious glances thrown his way, Kirito opened his item storage, scrolling down the opened list with one finger.

In addition to the potion he had taken from that alleyway, he had found several abandoned items in the field, and an energy pack had dropped from a defeated ratatta as well. But as he reached the end of the list, he found a selection that hadn't been there before.

_Hand Mirror_, it read.

_A mirror?_

Kirito tapped it, causing a gathering of data particles above his hand. By default, the menu disappeared, and his hand automatically turned to catch the rectangular pane of glass before it fell to the ground.

It was a simple mirror, framed and backed in plastic. He looked into its reflective surface, only seeing his avatar's tense face and the murky red sky behind it. It glinted slightly, shining a solitary ray of light into his face.

_What is this...?_

There was a shout of surprise from beside him, and Kirito looked up in alarm to see a shimmering pillar of blue light surround his friend, the red-headed man widening his eyes before disappearing amongst an expanse of white.

"Klein!"

Several more blazes of light consumed the players around him, inducing more cries of surprise. Instinctively shying away from those around him, Kirito fumbled and nearly dropped the mirror before being engulfed by the strange phenomenon himself.

He let out a panicked cry as the entire plaza was lit up like the second a nuclear bomb exploded.

* * *

**Author's Note:  
**

**And so I decided to write a Pokemon SAO crossover. Thanks to my friendsies on the SAO chat for inspiring me to write this. **

**So yah, pokemon! Who doesn't love pokemon?  
**

**I would appreciate any reviews to help improve my writing. Constructive Critisism is always welcome!**

* * *

**I do not own Sword Art Online or Pokemon.**


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